As the Dust Settles
by yuffiehighwind
Summary: With the prophecy shattered, it's back to normal on Olympus. Discord tries to cause some trouble for Athena's council, while Deimos gets in the way of her plans.


**Summary: **With the prophecy shattered, it's back to normal on Olympus. Discord tries to cause some trouble for Athena's council, while Deimos gets in the way of her plans.

**Notes: **Takes place during the time gap between S5E19 "Looking Death in the Eye" and S5E20 "Livia."

Like in the original Greek myth, Aphrodite and Ares are the parents of Deimos and Phobos, even though Deimos and Ares are explicitly cousins in TV canon.

Takes place between my fanfics "Better Find Someone to Blame" and "You Don't Look My Type, But I Guess You'll Do," neither of which are actually posted on this website, but are over on AO3. I posted it here because this can happen out of context anyway.

Rated M, but only for all the swearing. Sorry, but there's no sex.

* * *

**As the Dust Settles**

Now that Xena, her child and her partner are all dead, the Twilight averted and prophecy shattered, Athena calls a meeting and Discord almost goes. Almost. Discord plans to listen to everyone's thoughts on the power vacuum left by their father's death, before approaching any individual council member. This will help her poke at personal insecurities to stir up some extra good old-fashioned discord.

_(So-and-so said this about that, and this person is doing that because of this, and don't you think it's about time you got a shot at the throne?)_

Her reconnaissance mission is derailed before it can even begin when she senses someone following her. Someone who has not been invited. Discord's strolling through the Halls of Olympus on foot, because she wants to be fashionably late, and because it's a majestic building she doesn't often explore. Too bright, not enough skulls, no blood stains or screaming, but some might call it beautiful. It's an impressive, sprawling structure, easy to get lost in. Lots of places to hide, but this person wants to be noticed.

Discord stops, sighs and pulls her dagger out of its sheath.

"Who's there and what's the fleshiest part of your body?"

"Don't stab!" The person lets out a nervous, high-pitched laugh.

"Deimos?" Discord asks, as though that were surprising. Ever since the day Zeus died, the boy has been every-fucking-place.

He puts his hands up, like he's approaching a wild animal.

"Put away the dagger."

"I can flay you with a thought, knives are just more fun," Discord says blithely, sheathing it. "Look, I'm busy, so go away."

"What are you up to?"

"None of your business. Now scram!"

"What if I can help?"

Discord starts walking, hoping he'll take the hint. He doesn't.

"You'll screw it up. Subtlety isn't your strong suit."

He keeps pace beside her, opening his mouth about to protest that he can, in fact, be plenty sneaky. She cuts him off before he can blather about accomplishments that barely stack up to her own.

"The marks this time aren't stupid, sheep-like humans. They're gods like me. Smart. You're god of…whatever. But I'm goddess of discord, and this is my jam. So stay out of my way."

She walks faster, aggressively storming her way to the royal hall room. Deimos jogs to keep up.

"How can I get in the way when you haven't even told me what your plan is?"

Discord stops short, and the younger god stumbles trying not to slam into her back.

"It's a secret," she whispers. She wants to take out that dagger and put it to good use, but that will only cause a scene. Some minor immortals stride towards them from the other direction, about to walk past. Discord grips Deimos' bicep to turn him towards the windows that stream bright sunlight into the stone hallway. The sky is robin-egg blue, a white blanket of clouds below the palace, where Olympus sits atop a mountain.

"How about this, Cousin," Discord says. "I'll go to the council meeting alone, and you go brainstorm ideas for how to mess with members later."

Discord hopes throwing him a bone like this will keep him occupied.

"Alright!" he says, enthusiastic and giggling. Discord digs her nails into his arm, and he gasps in pain.

"Can you rein in the laughter a bit? Seriously. It's not scary or menacing, and it always gives you away. It's annoying. You should be called the god of annoyance."

The humor drains out of him and Deimos glares at her. He tears his arm out of her grip.

"Why do you have to be such a bitch?"

Discord, exasperated, says, "Because I'm the goddess of…Never mind." She throws up her hands. "Fuck this. Fuck you."

A thought seems to cross the young god's mind and Discord knows it can't be a good one.

"Fuck me, huh?"

He grins slightly. He's slowly mastering how to rein the humor in. Deimos steeples his fingers, feigning deep thought, his face doing its best approximation of "devious."

"I have…not so much a proposition, as an ultimatum."

Discord shakes her head, knowing what he's about to say.

"You wouldn't, you slime!"

"I'll stay quiet about your plans to mess with the council, _if_ you let me fuck you."

"You worm! There is no way I would ever fuck you!"

Deimos shrugs, "You don't technically have to do anything but lie there."

Discord fumes, face reddening, and clenches her fists.

"You are such a sleazy creep!"

Discord shudders, imagining the sex. It's easy enough to bend over and let a man go to town. It would be over in just a few minutes, but that was not how she rolled. She would not allow herself to be degraded like that.

"_I_ fuck, I don't _get_ fucked. No deal!"

"Fine!" Deimos says, striding ahead as though he's about to tell Athena everything. Discord isn't scared of any actual repercussions. Her older sister will roll her eyes, maybe add some extra security. But with such advance warning, any scheme crumbles before it begins. It's back to being goddess of retribution and nothing more. She loves the job, she really does, but it's not the same as starting wars with whispers.

But there's no way she'll give Deimos the satisfaction of using her like that. Stand strong, Discord tells herself. Besides, he's the one who looks bad ratting her out. Athena won't respect him any more or less than she already does.

"Fine!" Discord shouts back, shaking in anger and trying with all her might not to shriek at him. Cool and confident, that's how she used to be. With a single sentence, the weasel has rattled her.

Deimos disappears around a corner and Discord doesn't move. Frozen, she doesn't know what action to take next. She glances out the window at the wisps of clouds drifting by, walks over and leans heavily on the sill. The sun shines down, warm on her skin, and there's a quick flash of light. Someone or something smelling strongly of suntan lotion is standing just behind her. She can't help but smile slightly.

"Hey bro."

"Little sis," says Apollo. "What brings you up here to my domain?"

Discord thinks for a moment, turns around and figures this is her chance to nudge the chess pieces just a little before Deimos flips the board.

"I was just on my way to Athena's meeting when I stopped to think. Something about this is bugging me."

"Like what?"

"I've got this suspicion. Now the dust has settled, and the Twilight's been averted, with Zeus gone Athena's gonna take full control permanently. Sure, she's gonna pretend it's a democracy, but think about it, why would she share?"

It's a small, simple kernel of fear. Not Discord's best work, but small things can have world-shaking repercussions.

Apollo's broad, surfer bro grin has turned to a worried frown.

_(There it is.)_

"You're wrong," Apollo says, matter of fact, but Discord can tell this is more a reassurance for himself than for her. "Athena would never usurp all the power like that."

"You trust her?"

Apollo looks Discord dead in the eye and says firmly, "With my life."

Discord scoffs. "Suit yourself."

"You're so negative," Apollo says, flipping back his long blonde hair. "Look on the bright side, she's no Hera."

Discord turns away so Apollo can't see her somber expression.

"See ya later, sis."

She doesn't reply, just waves bye with a casual flick of her hand. It didn't work. All it did was get her thinking about her mother again.

_(Well, maybe I can just focus on work._

_Wait._

_Hera is the one who assigned all my targets._

_Hera is the one who finally made me goddess of retribution._

_There is no job.)_

Discord gazes out the window, but no more siblings come by to check on her. She almost seeks out Deimos. Almost. Being with him can't be the worst thing that could ever happen to her.

* * *

Late that night, Discord stands on the shore of the Mediterranean, as if the breaking waves will give her some idea how to proceed, how to get things back to normal. A tiny, green bubble dissolves into form in front of her, growing larger and larger into a humanoid shape. The bubble pops and it's Deimos. Ugh.

"Change of plans. You don't have to fuck me, but you're gonna want to."

Deimos giggles, making him the last person or thing Discord could ever conceive of fucking. It is the least attractive thing about him, off-putting like nothing else she's ever heard. His body language, linguistic inflections, mania and horrible, horrible clothing all scream nearly as loudly, but you can always give him a sedative and some new threads, and he'd be tolerable. But there is no getting rid of that laugh.

"This again? Why? You bested me."

She feels like she might vomit just admitting it, but worse adversaries have hindered her schemes.

"Well, I went to Athena and told her you were coming to the meeting and not to believe anything you said."

"Uh-huh. So?"

"Well here's what happened."

* * *

"What do you mean Discord's coming to break up the council meeting?"

Deimos smirked.

"She's planning to sprinkle a little doubt, little bit o' discord, if ya know what I'm saying."

"That sounds like my sister." Athena turned and motioned for Deimos to follow her, leading him a short distance from the table where gods had begun to seat themselves. Speaking more softly, she asked, "Do you have any details? What Discord might be planning, specifically?"

The god of terror paused, carefully calculating his reply. Athena arched an eyebrow expectantly.

After a moment, the fear god blurted, "Treasure."

"Treasure?"

"Ye-es? Yes, treasure! She was gonna say your siblings were after the…the…"

"Spit it out, child!"

"Remember that stone? I mean, the final shard of the Kronos stone?"

* * *

Discord sputters in disbelief.

"You fucking idiot! The final shard is long gone! Hercules kicked it halfway to another planet!"

"Wait, wait, I'm getting to the good part."

* * *

Athena's stare was so icy and so unreadable, that Deimos began to sweat (metaphorically of course, because war gods don't sweat). Finally she said, "Do you mean to tell me, someone knows where the final shard is?"

Deimos grinned, starting to giggle, which turned some other gods' heads. He coughed, trying to suppress it.

"That time I…um…"

"Lost it."

"Lost it. Yes. Lost it. Sorry about that."

Deimos watched her face, twisting and untwisting the rings around his fingers.

"It was supposed to remain buried anyway," the goddess of wisdom said. Deimos let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh. Good. Okay, well, somebody found where it went!"

Deimos shushed himself, although he'd said it loudly on purpose, but Athena just narrowed her eyes. If any other god nearby heard and had begun listening, he couldn't know, but he counted on it.

"Who?" Athena asked softly. "Discord?"

"N-no, um, not Discord. But she heard a rumor, dunno who started it, but there's a rumor it was somebody—"

Athena's eyes darted over her nephew's shoulder briefly and Deimos followed her gaze.

"Hey Sis!"

The sun god was waving at them. Athena gave him a curt nod. To Deimos, she said, "You were telling me who found the stone."

"Yes, yes I was." Deimos giggled. "Somebody a bit more familiar with the sky, if you take my meaning."

* * *

In the present, Discord's face cannot help smiling, and she laughs along with her stupid, ugly nephew. He doesn't seem to know why she's laughing so hard, why she's flung herself at his body and wrapped her arms around his neck. He just lifts her and spins her around, and she can almost fool herself it's Strife in her arms. Almost.

"Did I do good?"

"You did great. I had just spoken to Apollo before he walked in!"

Deimos sets her back on her feet.

"Huh?"

"Don't you see? This is fantastic! I told Apollo that Athena was out to get him, and you told Athena that Apollo was out to get _her!_ It's tiny, it's small, but it's a start. Good job, kid! Thanks for not betraying me."

"Um…"

"Wait, you're hiding something. Are you leaving something out of the story? Is Athena coming after me?"

"No!

"Then what is it?"

Deimos makes an exasperated noise, a sort of grunt of frustration, and kicks a crab down the beach.

"I was going to betray you. I really wanted to! But when she was looking at me, asking me who knew where the shard was, I couldn't say it was you. I—"

Discord scoffs. "Don't say you actually care about me. A few hours ago you were blackmailing me into degrading myself."

"I don't care about you, it's totally practical. I was just thinking maybe we could accomplish more if we work together."

"Like a team?"

Discord hasn't worked on a team in fifteen years and she's not about to restart now.

"Your word, not mine," Deimos replies.

"Let me think about it. Hmm. No."

"Aw c'mon! Look what happened today, entirely by accident."

"Because you grew a conscience."

"I'm telling you that's not why—"

Discord chuckles.

"Fine, I'll give it some real thought. If Apollo and Athena actually start fighting. For now you're off my shit list. Temporarily."

Ending the conversation, Discord closes her eyes and prepares to teleport. She hears a swish of wind, probably Deimos pumping his fist.

"Good save, kid," she says, "I thought I'd have to find one of Kronos' ribs and kill you."

* * *

**Endnote:** References S6E2 of HTLJ, "Love Amazon Style," in which Deimos stole a shard of the Kronos stone from an Amazon tribe and subsequently lost it. The stone substantially enhances a god's powers. Who knows, the pair are making it up, but maybe someone would still be searching for it.


End file.
